Our Christmas

This year we spent Christmas Eve and day with my family. We had our traditional pizza and sub sandwiches on Christmas Eve. All of my family was there except for my brother Anthon and his wife Ashleigh, as they are due to have a baby in a week. It was lots of fun. I love watching Landen and Sydney play with their cousins. Christmas morning we let Landen and Sydney open one present, since they really don't care either way. Then we ate our traditional hashbrowns, eggs, bacon, and oj. Then we opened up the rest of our presents. Landen got to the point where he didn't want to open anymore, he just wanted to play with what he had already. Sydney just loved taking her time opening her presents and then playing with them. We hung out, watched movies and then ate dinner. It snowed this year while we were there. But we were really equipped for the clothing to go play in it. After we ate dinner, we had to head back home, since Byron had to work the next day.

Santa came to visit. Of course my kids wouldn't go to him unless someone went with them.

Opening presents that Uncle Jason bought them while he was in Mexico.


Landen's bike from Santa. It was a lot smaller that I thought it would be.
Sydney's bike from Santa.
This is my present to myself this year. A food saver. I love it. Don't worry, Byron actually got me a present this year and it was a really good one.

Saturday, we went to Byron's parents house to celebrate Christmas. We opened presents and then for dinner, Byron's Uncles and their families came over for dinner. Lots of fun.
Byron's mom, Wendy, made this for me. My kitchen is decorated in apples, hence the apple apron.

Sydney opening presents. She loves her blocks, and loves to stack them.
This is Landen's present. He loved it. It is a race car track.


I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a great new year.

Paint Your Nails PINK!!!!!

I just talked to my cousin Katie. She said her mom mentioned that maybe we could all post "Paint your nails Pink" This means that we need to paint our finger nails or toes nails pink. Everytime we look at our nails it will be a reminder to pray for Sariah and her newborn baby. For those of you who don't know who this is or what is going on, let me fill you in. Sariah is my cousin. She is in labor righ now giving birth to a baby boy with a VERY severe heart condition. Once he is born, the heart specialist will determine when he needs heart surgery. The Dr's say that it has to do with his Pulmonary artery. This is all very scary for us and especially Sariah's family. Please remember to pray for her and her family. I really couldn't explain all the details of the type of heart condition it is, but if you would like to know more here is her blog link. www.finchouse.blogspot.com To the right is a link to follow the baby's progress.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Thanksgiving and Sydney turns ONE!

Thanksgiving this year was at my parents house. I went up a few days early to hang out with my parents. Landen, as always, spent the majority of his time outside. He liked to sit on my brothers four wheeler. I also took him on a few rides on the bigger four wheeler even if it was freezing outside. He loves going for rides.
The prego's taking a nap.

My friends Jason and Mindy joined us this year.
Since all of my family was together, I decided to have a small party for Sydney for her birthday. I just put a candle on a peice of pumpkin pie and we sang to her.

Then that weekend on her real birthday, Byron's family came over and we had a party. I made her this flower cake, which she was kinda hesitant to eat at first, but once I made her taste it, she was hooked.


These are some of the presents she got. I got her a baby doll and this stroller. She loves it and of course so does Landen. They now fight over who gets to push the stroller. Thanks again to everyone who gave her a present.

halloween pics

I know it is way past Halloween, but Sydney accidentally broke the internet usb device so I couldn't post until it was fixed. And I really wanted to post our Halloween pics.

Byron's cousin Jeremy got married on Halloween so we were at his wedding and reception all afternoon and evening. So we were unable to go trick or treating. Oh well, we din't need all that candy anyways. But Landen sure did have fun at the party.
Landen is dressed up like what Byron looks like at work. We took one of his shirts and sewing it down to fit him. He has a gun on his hip too. He looked so cute and just loved his outfit and his gun.
Sydney is Snow White.

Byron is supposed to be a dracula, but he had to go back to work right after the wedding so he just put the cape on and that's all. Even if he didn't have to go back to work I doubt I would have been able to get him to go all out and really dress up.

Finally an update!

Let's see. What have I been up to these past couple of months. It seems like I have been so busy, yet I really haven't been that busy. (this is all really for journaling reasons so if you don't really want to read it all just go to the bottom and look at the pictures.)

We went camping with my family over Labor Day at Green's Peak. Lots of fun as always. We haven't been since we got married and Landen had never been camping before and I really wanted him to be able to go play with all of his cousins. I had to beg Byron to go. He said we couldn't go for the longest time, but I finally won that battle. And of course, as always, he really enjoyed himself and was glad we went. Sadly, it rained most of the time and so we spent most of our time in our camp trailer. But it is always nice to get away from the valley heat and spend time in the cool mountains.

I decided to paint Sydney's room. That took forever cause I was only able to paint while both kids were sleeping and that was probably only one to two hours at a time. I went purple on the bottom and pink on the top. I think the pink is way too bright, but everyone who has seen it has said it looks good. I think they are lying to me cause they don't want to hurt my feelings. While I was painting, Sydney slept in our room in her play pen. She has been horrible waking up all hours of the night. I have still yet to put her back in her own room cause Byron is taking FOREVER putting up her blinds. I am really hoping by the end of this week she can be back in her room. I will post pictures once her room is totally back to normal.

I have taken up a new hobby. It can be expensive, but it is all worth it. I have been canning. I found a pressure cooker at Walmart on clearance, so I bought it for a Christmas present to myself. Then I found a great deal on peaches and bought two boxes. So I decided to open my Christmas present and use it. I canned most of them, and then I made freezer jam and fruit leather and froze the rest for Christmas pies. My Dad also gave me lots of tomatoes, so I canned tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, and salsa. I have also canned jam. It is actually lots of fun.

I went to my mom's for a few days back in September. She helped me can salsa. It is yummy, just not very spicy, which we like. Then I went back for a visit a couple of weeks ago. My cousin Shericacame into town from Texas to visit her family. So I went back up there to see her and hang out with my mom. We canned chinken while I was up there. All of us cousins that are around the same age, except for Sharilyn, which we missed having join us, got together for dinner and to just sit and catch up on. It was fun and great to see everyone. When we were young, we would all get together every summer and go camping for a week at the Perkins homestead. Just a bunch of sassy girls running around, arguing and fighting with each other. Ha ha good ole times. It was always a blast. Sadly, my younger sisters and younger cousins didn't get to have that kind of experience. I'm not sure why the tradition didn't carry on once us older ones got older.
Landen loves to play outside. The whole time I was at my moms he was outside playing whenever he could.
Sydney and Evan playing together.

Last week, my friend Mindy Matyas and her kids came to visit for a week. We had lots of fun. We canned a 100 lbs of potatoes, went shopping till we droppped, or should I say shopped till we were broke. Mindy is way into food storage. So it is nice to have her around to help me know what is a good deal and how to get things together. Since we have lived in our house I have been trying really hard to get things together for food storage. So she has helped me become more knowledgeable in that kind of stuff. Like I didn't know to freeze flour, rice, pasta and any kind of powder mixes for 24 hours to prevent from getting bugs. Then we put all of that stuff in buckets. So hopefully we can get all of our years supply soon.

I have also picked up another hobby. I am currently working on a quilt. Growing up I have only know how to tie quilts. Well my mother in law is way into quilting so she has sparked my interest in trying to tackle this new project. I actually started a quilt for Landen when I found out I was having a boy. I had no instruction, just went with the square concept. It turned out ok. I could have done totally better had I know some basic principles. So I am sure my mother in law was laughing at my horrindous quilt making attempt. She bought me a straight edge and rotary blade and has let me borrow some patterns. She has also given me lots of material to work with. Thanks a million Wendy. So I have attempted to make another quilt. It won't be anything fancy or cute. I am just using a bunch of scraps so nothing is really going to match. But hopefully with her help it will turn out decent.

Well with Halloween approaching, hopefully we will get to go trick or treating. Byron's cousin is getting married on Halloween so we will be there all afternoon. But hay, it will save me lots of money this year not having to buy candy. Well maybe not, since I bought all of our costumes, except for Landen's. We didn't go to our ward trunk or treating because my husband hates Halloween. Well he actually hates all holidays, hince why I have to buy my own Christmas presents. So I have decided that for now on, we will just go without him.
Landen working in my pathetic back yard.
These just a few books that my little puppy dog aka Sydney has chewed up among lots of other things too.
Landen and Sydney love to look at books. When Landen looks at them he makes a lot of jibberish noises, acting like he is reading.

Please fast and pray

I received an email from the relief society president, who she received an email from our stake president. Please fast and pray on Sunday to protect the santicty of marriage.

Please join us in an interfaith fast on Sunday, October 12th for California Proposition 8 and Arizona's Proposition 102.

Whatever your professed faith may be, your faith and fasting can bring forth the powers of heaven. Please abstain from food and drink on Sunday, October 12th and please pray for a positive outcome for California's Proposition 8 and Arizona's Proposition 102, that hearts may be softened, and that understanding and wisdom will prevail.

Please FORWARD this to those in favor of protecting and restoring traditional marriage in California and Arizona. We would LOVE to have residents of other states or nations join us in our fasting and prayer!

YOU have been MOONED!!!!! Ha ha HA hA Haha.

HAppY hALLOweeN!!!!!!

Four Years Already!

Today is our fourth anniversary. It is crazy that four year have gone by already. I can still remember feeling all twitterpaited to see him. And the wonderful feelings of when we were married in the temple. I love Byron so very much and am so glad he hung out with me long enough to get to know me and for me to fall in love with him. Like it was really that long. We hung out as friends for two months, dated two months and were engaged for two months. Now two kids later we are still very much in love with each other.

Today he surprised me and got home from work at 2 o'clock. I was totally shocked. Then my sister Shauna came over around 5 to watch the kids so Byron and I could go to dinner. We went to Texas Roadhouse, one of our favorites places. It was so yummy. I especially love their rolls, or maybe it is really their special butter. Of course I worried the whole time about Sydney being a little stinker, but she wasnt. She was actually good.

Byron also surprised me with these.

Ok, so I cheated with the cakes. They are actually cupcakes and I followed a pattern. But they could have been cuter had I had all of the correct marterals and colors.

Also, Allison has a new blog address if you haven't already updated yours. And she posted. Yeah!! Just click on her name in my list and get her new address that way.

Two Years Old

Thursday my little boy turned TWO! I can't believe just two years ago my sweet little boy came into our lives and changed it forever. He is such a sweetheart. He takes such good care of his little sister and is already such a big help to me. He loves to help me do everything. He has such a tender little heart. He gets sad if Sydney gets hurt or cries. He loves and cares about her so much. He gives us great hugs and kisses and we LOVE him so very much! We are so happy he is in our lives.


We had a party for him while my parents were here last week. Don't make fun of my train that I tried to make. I'm not very good at decorating.


Then we had a little party for him with Byron's family. Again, don't make fun of my dump truck.


All in all, he had a great time. He loved all of his presents. Thanks to all who got him something. They are now all over my house. But that's ok. He loves to play with them. And Sydney loves them too.

A very busy weekend!

This past weekend was very busy for Byron and I. We drove to Show Low Friday night. Got up early to go to breakfast in Clay Springs. While in Clay Springs, we went to my cousin's house to see some of the new baby animals that were just born. After that we rushed back to Show Low so I could get ready for my 10 year High School Reunion luncheon. We ate sub sandwiches and chips. Sat and talked to old friends and got sunburned. Sadly, Sydney got the worst of us all. The top of her head and little nose. And she now has a farmer's tan. After the luncheon, we rushed out to Vernon where Byron's family was having a family reunion. We stayed out there for a few hours visting with family. Then we came back to Show Low to get ready for the dinner for my class reunion. While at the dinner I worried about Sydney the whole time. She isn't very good with other people besides me. When I called my mom around 10:00 she had been asleep so far but by the time we got home, she had woken up and was screaming. So then of course she wouldn't go back to sleep till almost midnight. Then early Sunday morning we drove back to Mesa so Byron could get back to nursery on time. Whew, was a fast weekend. I will post pictures of the class reunion and family reunion once I get the USB cord from my brother Jason. I had to use his camera because I didn't plan very well and so the battery on my camera went dead after our trip to Clay Springs.
Baby bunny

Byron and Landen Pig
Baby Goat


My cousin's Misty headstone. She was 19 when she died.

My grandparents homestead.
My grandparents headstone.